: The first flight carryingpeople of Andhra Pradesh would land in Hyderabad from the USA on Monday as more than 20,000 people were expected to be repatriated from various foreign countries in the next few days, as the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions have been eased.All those landing in Hyderabad would be brought to Vijayawada by buses and quarantined after preliminary screening at the airport, Principal Secretary (Transport) M T Krishna Babu said.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday reviewed the arrangements being made for the returnees.According to Krishna Babu, reception teams from Andhra Pradesh would be positioned in airports at Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai where the state citizens would arrive from various foreign countries.A proper medical check-up will be conducted on these people and if someone is found with symptoms of coronavirus, they will be moved to the nearest COVID-19 Care Centre. Others will be brought to the state by buses, he said.The state government was providing two options - free or paid quarantine - depending on the passengers choice.If the returnees opt for paid quarantine, we have categorised three facilities by tying up with various hotels. There will be luxury, medium and budget categories with prices starting from Rs 1,500," the Principal Secretary said.On inter-state transfers, he said 11 trains have been arranged so far and 11,860 migrant workers have been sent back to their respective states."Rajasthan and West Bengal governments have not yet given permission to send the migrant workers back to those states. As such we could not run the special Sharmik trains, he said.Jharkhand was permitting only one train per week and the second train would leave on May 12.The state government was footing the complete expenditure of the migrant workers upto the last mile and also providing Rs 500 to each person for out-of-pocket expenses, Krishna Babu added.From other states, 12,273 people had returned. We are giving top priority to migrant workers in distress, pilgrims, tourists and students in groups stuck in other states. Another 30,000 people were still stuck in other states waiting to return, the Principal Secretary said.
